Subject: [76attendees] Obtaining laptop power cords in Hiroshima

From: "Kevin P. Fleming" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:14:49 -0500

I'm traveling with a laptop with a power supply that uses an IEC C5
(Mickey Mouse) connector on the supply end; I've looked for a
C5-to-Japanese cord here in the USA, but all I can find have a 3-prong
plug on the receptacle end. Based on Ole's website (and others), it
seems like I'll need a 2-prong plug to have any chance to be able to
plug in at the hotel and other places. I've got a plug adapter already,
but I'd prefer to not have to use it.

Will it be fairly easy to find such a power cord in Hiroshima, or should
I try harder to find one before leaving the USA?

-- 
Kevin P. Fleming
Digium, Inc. | Director of Software Technologies
445 Jan Davis Drive NW - Huntsville, AL 35806 - USA
skype: kpfleming | jabber: [email-masked]
Check us out at www.digium.com & www.asterisk.org

---

From: Ole Jacobsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:18:34 -0700 (PDT)

Kevin,

I would say that it's fairly easy to find such a cord in Hiroshima at 
any of the sites listed. If you want, I'd be happy to find one for you
in Tokyo the week prior to Hiroshima. The number of stores is of 
course much larger there.

In the meantime, the 3-prong to 2-prong adapters work quite well, so
I'd bring it just in case.

Ole

Ole J. Jacobsen
Editor and Publisher,  The Internet Protocol Journal
Cisco Systems
Tel: +1 408-527-8972   Mobile: +1 415-370-4628
E-mail: [email-masked]  URL: http://www.cisco.com/ipj

On Wed, 21 Oct 2009, Kevin P. Fleming wrote:

> _______________________________________________
> 76attendees mailing list
> [email-masked]
> https://www.ietf.org/mailman/listinfo/76attendees
>

---

From: "Thomson, Martin" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:33:15 +0800

I found that a pair of pliers can also be quite effective, but that was on a power adapter, not the original equipment.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: [email-masked] [mailto:76attendees-
> [email-masked]] On Behalf Of Ole Jacobsen
> Sent: Thursday, 22 October 2009 7:19 AM
> To: Kevin P. Fleming
> Cc: [email-masked]
> Subject: Re: [76attendees] Obtaining laptop power cords in Hiroshima
> 
> Kevin,
>

---

From: Ole Jacobsen <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:59:39 -0700 (PDT)

On Thu, 22 Oct 2009, Thomson, Martin wrote:

> I found that a pair of pliers can also be quite effective, but that 
> was on a power adapter, not the original equipment.

Snapping off the third prong (ground) would work just find on most
US-originated power cords. The thing you have to "worry" about is
the width of the remaining two blades: they should be the SAME size,
see: http://www.yikes.com/~ole/store/plug-socket.jpg

Most Japanese outlets look similar to the one you see in that picture,
that is, the plug is not keyed by having one wider blade.

I just checked my Apple MacBook power cord, and the blades are the 
same size so chances are your adapter uses a similar arrangement.

Bring the Dremel tool to file down one blade just in case.

OK, I am kidding on that last point ;-)

Ole

---

From: "Kevin P. Fleming" <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 22 Oct 2009 07:12:22 -0500

> same size so chances are your adapter uses a similar arrangement.

It does indeed, I just checked that this morning, and I also remembered
that I had snapped off the grounding prong on my wife's laptop power
adapter cord so it would fit into a European adapter on our last trip...
since the laptop power supply has no external metal components, I fail
to understand why they even used a three-prong plug in the first place
(there is nothing to connect the earth ground to).